Court sees videos of women in their apartments

Barry Sinclair of Dartmouth is charged with two counts of break and enter and five of voyeurism. (Halifax Regional Police photo)

A videotape with footage of four women filmed through apartment windows also had a recording of a cat that appeared to be inside the accused voyeur’s home.

When police searched Barry Edward Sinclair’s apartment on Sept. 18, 2011, they found the videotape along with a bag of women’s clothing, a camcorder, a digital camera and sketches of women made by Sinclair.

That evidence came out Wednesday on the third day of Sinclair’s trial in Nova Scotia Supreme Court in Halifax.

Sinclair, 50, of Dartmouth is charged with two counts of break and enter and five of voyeurism.

Two of the charges relate to break-ins at apartments on South and Shirley streets on Sept. 15, 2011, when someone was looking at women sleeping in their beds. The others are in connection to the videotape footage, shot between 2005 and 2011.

Det.-Const. Kim Robinson, the lead investigator on the case for the Halifax Regional Police, testified that police were able to identify three of the four women depicted in the videos after taking still images and releasing them through the media last fall.

The three who came forward told police they did not know they were being videotaped and were living in south-end Halifax at the time.

Between the videos of the first and second women was a recording of a cat playing with a ball of yarn. In that part of the video, Robinson identified for the court several pieces of furniture that appeared to match furnishings seen in photos taken of Sinclair’s apartment during the search.

Under cross-examination, Robinson said the videotape did not fit the camcorder found in the apartment.

Sgt. Don Stienburg said he helped search Sinclair’s apartment, which was carried out the day after the accused was charged with trespassing by night for peering into the window of a home on Birmingham Street in Halifax.

That charge came after an undercover officer tailed Sinclair for several hours overnight on Sept. 16. Sinclair had been arrested the day before in connection with the Sept. 15 break-ins, but not charged.

Stienburg said police found no indication of any woman living in Sinclair’s apartment so they seized the bag of women’s clothing, which was sitting in the main living area.

“We decided it may have been involved in other crimes,” Stienburg said.

The sketches were found in a closet and appeared to have been of celebrities, he said.

Two videotapes were found in a bedroom in a dresser drawer, the officer said. One was later found to contain the images of women in various stages of undress.

Court was shown an edited version of the videotape, which showed four women inside their apartments. One was in her underwear in her closet, another was waxing her legs in her underwear, the third was sitting on her bed in a camisole and the fourth was getting dressed and undressed in front of a mirror.

All the videos were taken through windows and were at times shaky.

Two of the taped women testified Wednesday that they were among the women recorded on the video.

One said she recognized herself after her father contacted her and told her to watch the news. She said she “felt quite violated” after realizing she had been taped in her apartment without her knowledge.

“I was quite rattled for several days after that,” she testified.

She had moved before finding out about the video but after seeing herself on the tape, she said she started pinning her curtains together, even though she lived on the third floor of her new building.

A second woman said she called police after a friend emailed to say she was in one of the released images.

“I was creeped out,” she said.”You then start to think all the time that someone is watching you.”

The Crown will close its case Thursday and the defence will decide then if the will present any evidence.